What a time

Most of you guys know I'm a Bostonian, a Red Sox and Bruins fan. I may have implied once or twice that I don't particularly care for the Pats, even though I like NFL football in general, or the Celtics, because I fucking hate basketball. Sure, their contributions to the whole "City of Champions" bullshit that's been flying around for a decade are a kiss on the ass of my hometown, which is something. The rest of the sporting world hates Boston with surprising passion, and that's something else. But I only got jubilant in 2004, and again in 2007, when the Red Sox fulfilled 86 years of blah blah blah.

My other writing responsibilities at redsox101.com ensure that I take in, usually more than once, every inning of every Red Sox game this year. And, rounding as they are into prime form, it's been fun to watch. I expect big things from the 2011 Red Sox this year. And having won it all twice in recent memory is great. But - that's pretty much it for me regarding fulfilling The Sporting Jones.

My point is that even though the championship rings have been flying around the Hub of the Universe with some regularity, I always felt that, as a Bruins fan, I could not Drink Deep of the Chalice of Universal Contentment and Perform Other Important Allegories until the Bruins won the Cup. And from where I sat, it wasn't going to be any time soon.

I got my Bruins seats, as I've said before, during the lockout that cancelled the 2004-2005 season. When I started hearing rumors of the two sides being close to an agreement I pounced, and got a cherry pair of seats for not a lot of money.

Unfortunately the Bruins were reintroduced with such luminaries on its roster as Brad Isbister and Jiri Slegr. What to know how bad it was? HAL FUCKING GILL was considered a marquis player. they managed 74 points in an anemic season that was good for last place in the ex Adams Division.

And they sucked the next year, 2006-2007, although just a tiny bit not as bad as the previous year.

But they didn't suck the year after that, 2007-2008. They had Savard and Chara and Bergeron was really coming in to his own. And finally after three years I got a set of playoff strips from the Bruins. And sure, they lost in the first round, but they took the first-place Canadiens to seven games and overachieved admirably.

And since then they've made the playoffs regularly but until this year weren't able to get out of the second round, finding new and awful ways to lose each year. Like when they were 3-0 against the Flyers last year and blew it in seven.

But this year...

This year, they roared back from Montreal taking its first two at Boston Garden to beat them in seven. This year, they swept the Flyers in the second round, dispatching them with a cocky quickness that was the perfect antidote to last year's horrible collapse. This year they went toe-to-toe with the Lightning, fought the good fight, and beat them in seven.

And now they're in the Stanley Cup Finals. And what's more, they're two games away from winning, and they have 100% of the momentum, the hot goalie, and apparently the winning formula for beating the fast, talented, better Vancouver Canucks.

Pretty heady days for The Kid. The Sox are poised to give me a great Summer, the Bruins are posed to give me a heart attack.

They're two games from winning, my friends. If they win, if they skate that god damned Cup around the ice, I...

I...